Medicine is jolly serious, life and death, pain and suffering, pills and needles. But wouldn’t a trip to the doctor be much more fun if it was a game? In his new show, Dr Phil puts the fun back into being ill. Learn how to diagnose yourself, your doctor and the NHS with Dr Phil’s highly subversive guerrilla tactics. And learn how to pleasure yourself safely so you don’t need doctors at all. Save yourself and save the NHS.

Dr Phil takes you on an incredible journey of political stupidity into the Heath Robinson monster of the NHS ‘reforms’, where lurks the Trojan Horse of Privatization and the Big Red Ball of Blame. Is the NHS being asset-stripped and dismantled? Or would you prefer to have your prostate screening in Primark? Stuff the politicians. Only patients can save the NHS now. It’s yours. You pay for it. You decide what to do with it. But see this hilarious show first.

Phil Hammond is an NHS doctor, writer, broadcaster, campaigner and comedian. He has been Private Eye’s medical correspondent for over 20 years and has appeared on Have I Got News for You, The News Quiz, The Now Show, The One Show, Countdown, Long Live Britain Celebrity Antiques Road Trip and BBC Radio Bristol

Praise for Dr Phil’s previous offerings:

“One of the most entertainingly subversive people on the planet.”The Guardian

“Tough on doctors, patients and politicians. And he’s funny.”The Telegraph

“Effortlessly suave and delightfully vulgar. You’ll never see a doctor in quite the same way again.” *****The Scotsman

“This is a real find; funny, poignant, thoughtful, worrying, reassuring, and so good it should be on prescription.”
–Roy Lilley @RoyLilley

“Smart and funny, Phil Hammond is the perfect way to inoculate yourself against the nonsense which passes for most health commentary.”
–Alastair McLellan – Editor, Health Service Journal @HSJEditor

“A fascinating insider’s history of the past sixteen years of the NHS. This wise, witty and often moving diary reveals what really went on behind the political and managerial bluster. So well written it turned me into a compulsive page turner.”
–Dr Michael O’Donnell, author of The Barefaced Doctor, a Mischievous Medical Companion

With cartoons by Fran Orford

‘GAMES TO PLAY WITH YOUR DOCTOR’ CLIP

Phil Hammond is an NHS doctor, campaigner, health writer, investigative journalist, broadcaster, speaker and comedian. He has done all these jobs imperfectly and part-time since 1987, and was also a lecturer in medical communication at the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol. As a doctor, Phil worked part time in general practice for over 20 years, and has also worked in sexual health. He currently works in a specialist NHS team for young people with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME.

Phil presented five series of Trust Me, I’m a Doctor on BBC2, and has been a presenter for BBC Radio Bristol since 2007. He is Private Eye’s medical correspondent, broke the story of the Bristol heart scandal in 1992 and gave evidence to the subsequent Public Inquiry. In 2012, he was shortlisted with Andrew Bousfield for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Investigative Journalism for ‘Shoot the Messenger,’ a Private Eye investigation into the shocking treatment of NHS whistle-blowers. In 2013, he was voted a Top 100 NHS Clinical Leader by the Health Service Journal, and achievement marred only by his inclusion on the judging panel.

Phil has never belonged to any political party but was highly critical of the Health and Social Care Bill (now Act) in a BBC1 Question Timedebate with then health secretary Andrew Lansley. He said the reforms were ‘wonk’, there was no convincing narrative explaining the reasons for the changes and that the focus on competition rather than the collaboration and co-operation needed for an integrated service.

Phil has written three books – Medicine Balls, Trust Me, I’m (Still) a Doctor and Sex, Sleep or Scrabble? His fourth book, ‘What do Doctors Really Think?’ is out in October 2014 and ‘Staying Alive – How to Survive the NHS’ will be published in January 2015.

Real time reviews of my consultations from patients and parents can be found here

My NHS work is as part of a specialist NHS team in Bath, treating young people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME, based at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath. Details of the service we offer are here Good advice on accessing specialist CFS/ME services and treatments available can be found via the AyME website (for people up the age of 25) and the Action for ME website (for those over 25)

I can’t give any personal medical advice via this site, and I don’t do any private practice.

Praise for Dr Phil’s comedy

“One of the most entertainingly subversive people on the planet.”The Guardian

“Tough on doctors, patients and politicians. And he’s funny.” The Telegraph

“Sceptical, irreverent, very funny and like a mighty gush of fresh air in a field that’s bedevilled with cover ups and cloaked in a vow of silence”Time Out

“Generates dozens of laughs and more ire than any amount of tentative taboo-breaching” The Financial Times

‘If Dr Phil were a medicine, you should swig him by the litre’ **** The Times

‘Consistently funny’ ***** The Sunday Telegraph

“You’ll never see a doctor in quite the same way again.” ***** The Scotsman

‘SHOOT THE MESSENGER’ – A PRIVATE EYE SPECIAL INVESTIGATION BY PHIL HAMMOND AND ANDREW BOUSFIELD INTO HOW NHS WHISTLEBLOWERS ARE SILENCED AND SACKED WAS SHORTLISTED FOR THE MARTHA GELLHORN PRIZE FOR JOURNALISM 2011. AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD HERE Shoot_the_Mesenger_FINAL